We’re thrilled to finally launch the most significant update we’ve ever done. Virtually every aspect of the site has been given an overhaul—from the look and feel, to the underlying framework. It’s faster, offers an improved experience for users and our lodge partners, and provides a solid foundation for what we want to do in the future. We have some big plans to keep fishlodges.com the #1 resource for all-inclusive fishing lodges in the Northwest!
Let’s take a detailed look at everything that’s new.
New Lodge Page Details
We’ve added several new features to every lodge page to provide even more detailed insight into the experience awaiting potential fishing lodge guests.
HIGHLIGHTS
Right under the photo gallery are the highlights of the lodge—a collection of the most important information about the lodge. At a glance, visitors can see if the fishing lodge ticks their “must-have” boxes.
Guest-to-Guide Ratio
The typical guest-to-guide ratio at fishing lodges and resorts is 4:1. Some lodges offer a more personal level of service, with more guides for guests (and therefore a lower guest-to-guide ratio). The guest-to-guide ratio is now shown as part of the Fishing highlights.
Unique Lodge features
With so many great fishing lodge options available, it’s often difficult for site visitors to know what makes each lodge special. What’s the difference between multiple fishing lodges that include the same things but are priced differently? A lodge’s “secret sauce” is what elevates its value over another lodge. We’ve added the ability to showcase this “secret sauce” with a list of up to 10 items (appears in the Overview section). Lodges can use this list to display what makes them unique to potential guests. This can clarify why their fishing lodge is the the best value overall for your fishing vacation.Meals Description and Photos
In addition to a description of a lodge’s accommodations, we’ve added a new subsection (under Accommodations) for a description of the meals that are served. There’s now also a separate photo gallery for everything food-related.
Species Availability Calendar
In the “What We Catch” section we’ve added the species availability calendar that shows when in the season which fish can be caught. This is extremely helpful for planning one’s trip. More information on this feature can be found here.
Facebook + TripAdvisor + Google Reviews in One
In addition to TripAdvisor ratings and reviews, we can now embed ratings and reviews from Facebook and Google. Lodge owners don’t need to do anything to make this happen, and the the ratings and reviews will automatically update daily to show the latest information available. The lodge’s overall rating is now an average of all reviews from each source.
Travel Planner
A new section we’ve added is the Travel Planner. Here a lodge can provide information that a potential guest can use to get a sense of what’s involved in getting to the lodge. If the lodge is a fly-in fishing lodge, a map will show the destination that the guest will need to travel to (the cost of which is NOT included in the price) and it will show the location of the lodge (the travel to here IS included).
It’s still super easy to find out the best ways (and in fact all the different ways) to get to the travel destination, thanks to the Route Planner. Just enter your current location and it will automagically show you various ways to travel to the lodge’s pick-up location, including different airlines, ferry routes, and driving directions. Plus it shows you the cost of each travel option. It’s awesome!
Finding the best fishing lodge or resort
The most popular (and useful) page on the site lists the entire catalog of fishing lodges. It used to be called “Search” but we now call the “Lodges” page…and it’s had a big makeover too.
Side-by-side view
Our new design for this page places everything in three columns, which makes it easier to use on modern wide-screen computer monitors.
All filters are still on the left side. As before, when you select a filter, the pins on the map and the lodge “cards” change. You can still combine filters to refine the lodges and create your shortlist.
The rest of the screen is split between the map and the list of fishing lodges. You can change the size of each pane by dragging the middle separator.
easy identification of what's included
Now you can see right from this page, and without needing to open up the lodge page, what’s included in the lodge’s packages.
- All inclusive fishing trip
- Fly in
- Drive in
- Equipment/gear/tackle/bait included
- Fish processing/packaging/shipment homer included
- Meals included
- WiFi/Internet access available
Hover your mouse pointer over each icon if you forget what they mean.
Favourites
This is something we’ve wanted for a long time: click the little heart icon over each lodge’s cover photo to mark it as a favourite. At any time you can filter the lodges to show only your favourites, and it will remember them every time you return.
Sorting the List
In addition to filtering the list of lodges, you can now sort the list by either price or rating (lowest-to-highest or highest-to-lowest).
When sorting by rating, it takes into consideration the number of reviews as well as the averaging rating. That is a 4.8-star rated lodge with 120 reviews is ranked higher than a 5-star rated lodge with only 4 reviews.
